her way ✰ (dallas winston x reader)

chapter 58 - old friends

~your p.o.v~

I finally forced myself to return to school. I was filled with dread, I knew there would be all sorts of gossip because of the boys and me being in the newspaper.

I walked into school, heading to my locker and avoiding eye contact with most people. The only person I was paying attention to was Two-bit, who was rambling about something next to me.

I put in my locker combination and was about to grab my school supplies when someone shut my locker. My body tensed up.

Let the gossip begin.

"Heard you and some greasers saved kids in a fire, huh?"

I looked over to see a soc that I didn't talk to much. He had brown, wavy hair with brown eyes. He was tall, probably around six foot. He had a few other socs with him.

"What's it to you?" I asked. He chuckled and so did his group of friends.

I scanned the group and spotted a familiar face. I felt my heart sink.

"Thomas?" It had been forever since I'd talked to him. Ever since I'd been talking to greasers we'd drifted apart. I knew he feared greasers. He was afraid that all of them were as dangerous as Robert or Dallas.

"Long time no see, Y/n." He spoke nonchalantly, acting as if he didn't have a care in the world. His hands were shoved in his Letterman's jacket pockets casually and he looked at me with an unimpressed expression.

"Since when did you hang out with these guys?" I asked, genuinely curious. He scoffed.

"Since when did you hang out with greasy trash like him?" He referred to Two-bit. My eyes widened as the other socs laughed. Two-bit leaned against the lockers now, crossing his arms. He was gonna let me handle the situation.

"Excuse me?" I stepped closer to Thomas, rage forming in me.

"You heard me."

"No, say it again. I want you to call Two-bit that again." I was daring him to.

"All bark and no bite. That's what you've always been. You think you can scare everyone off with your empty threats." He spoke bitterly.

My heart was racing. I put up a tough exterior but deep down there was an aching in my heart and I wished that this was all some joke. That Thomas was just pulling some mean prank on me and it'd be over soon.

"Your family must be pretty disappointed in you for hanging around greasers." Thomas spat. I felt my heart stop.

"I'll kill you!" I screamed suddenly, lunging at Thomas. Two-bit scrambled to grab my arms and I thrashed against him, wanting badly to beat the tar out of Thomas.

"You insensitive little bi-"

"Easy, Y/n." Two-bit mumbled. Two-bit began dragging me away from the group and even the other socs were stunned by Thomas's words.

One of them leaned over and whispered in Thomas's ear and I saw his angry expression fall away from his face. He looked horrified and full of regret.

A decent amount of people had found out about my home life, but there was still a lot of people that didn't know. I guess Thomas was one of those people.

"You're dead to me, Thomas!" I yelled across the hallway. I knew I was making a scene. I could care less. It's not like I wanted to be in this stupid school anyway.

My grades were slipping because I've been so distracted with everything happening. I was sick of everyone around me. The only reason I showed up to school anymore was because Two-bit said he wanted someone to joke around with throughout the day and he said it would be a real shame if I stopped showing up.

I had always helped Two-bit with his schoolwork, too. It felt like lately I was letting him down. I struggled to stay focused whenever I would be helping him with his work. I didn't want to start slipping up now because Two-bit was actually getting decent grades now since I helped him out so much.

I wanted to see Two-bit graduate and get out of high school. I knew he had potential. If he put his mind to something, he could do it.

I believe in Two-bit and I hope he knows it. Ever since I'd been staying with the Curtis brothers for the past few days I had seen Two-bit a lot more. Whenever he'd come over I'd help walk him through his school work and try to make the steps clear. I hated just giving him the answers, I wanted him to actually be able to learn the material we were going over in school.

-

I was sitting in science, my safety goggles resting on my forehead as I wrote down data on a science project we were doing. We didn't get to pick our science partners for this experiment. If we had gotten to pick I probably would've partnered up with Steve since he's the only person I like in this class.

I was invested in my schoolwork when my science partner spoke up.

"I heard about your family." He said casually as he wrote down data. I rolled my eyes and set my pencil down.

"Okay. And?"

"You think they'd be disappointed that you're hanging around greasers now?"

Suddenly he was smacked upside the head. I looked up and Randy was glaring at the boy.

"You say another word about the Sheldon family and you'll regret it." He spat at the boy. I was surprised, to say the least. Randy had bad mouthed to another soc for me just now, and I'm pretty sure this soc was even one of his buddies!

"Why are you defending her? She's hanging out with the enemy!" The boy protested. Randy leaned down and became eye level with the boy.

"You better watch your mouth about Y/n and her family. You don't know anything about them, so shut your trap. Consider this a warning."

Some of the other students near us had noticed the conflict, but most of the students hadn't noticed since there was already so much chatter and socializing happening in the classroom.

Randy continued walking back to his lab bench with his partner and I turned back to him, mouthing a 'thank you'.

He just gave me a small smile and went back to his work.

I knew most of the socs didn't accept me as much anymore and my image was tainted, but I was glad to have an old friend standing up for me.